Who We Are

In an industry with a reputation likened to a car sales industry, we seized the opportunity to launch one of the most recognized and respected training industry brands, Recruitment Academy. We are an organization that constantly innovates within an entire industry and have absolutely no hesitation to bring to life and to the market first, well overdue initiatives such as Recruitment Academy, and Australia’s first ever exclusive career site for recruiters, Recruit Me Now.

From day one, Recruitment Academy has sought to improve the service delivery and performance standards of new consultants, to enhance the industry’s reputation and to build a stronger sense of professionalism from within. As a result of our high profile, branding, marketing and our solid reputation, Recruitment Academy has organically become a leading training specialist within the recruitment industry. With a constantly changing market, it is always a challenge to stay ahead, and strong, highly skilled recruitment consultants are the cornerstone in any strategic advancement.

The bedrock of Recruitment Academy is our team of expert recruitment and training professionals and our diverse range of industry products and services. Our in-depth knowledge of the industry is of a calibre that can only be obtained from on-the-ground experience in recruitment. We have identified a breach in the recruitment industry: exceedingly high attrition rates are bleeding recruitment consultants from the ground and there is a lack of skilled, industry savvy professionals to step into their place.

Our aim is to give candidates and recruitment consultants an extensive and grounded source of knowledge and programs that empower them to not only succeed in the recruitment industry but to thrive in it. We believe clients today expect their recruitment consultants to implicitly understand business, to be trained in all types of interviewing methodology, and to be knowledgeable about many industry types. That type of background is difficult to build on the job, and meanwhile, clients are paying the price for their consultants’ inexperience.  

Recruitment Academy offers the industry a way to attack any skills shortage head on. Through us, recruitment agencies have access to select job-ready (via our job board Recruit Me Now), pre inducted “Academy Graduates”. Our pool of graduates is constantly growing, Recruitment Academy has become recognised as a leading induction and training service available to recruitment consultants entering the industry. We have trained hundreds of candidates from all industry backgrounds, including retail, travel, IT, real estate, banking and finance, accounting, hospitality, trade, industrial, call centre, executive, sales and marketing, recruitment and human resources as well as generalist candidates.

We offer professional, market leading induction and training services that are adaptable to your organisation’s needs. We can take newly appointed recruits off your hands, training them at our dedicated induction courses or, if you find yourself with limited resources or congested staff intake, Recruitment Academy is ready to facilitate an in-house induction course, tailored specifically to your organization, nationally.

Our goal is to:

• Make the recruitment industry a better place for employees to work;
• Increase the standard of candidates entering the industry;
• Minimise attrition within the Recruitment Industry;
• Help in-house HR improve return from recruitment investment;
• Offer recruitment agencies access to a reputable range of recruitment training products, the best line up of industry leaders and the facility to showcase pre-inducted, industry-savvy consultants who are productive from day one.

Michael Dimopoulos Managing Director

As the founder and managing director since May 2006, Michael has successfully positioned Recruitment Academy as the first Induction, Training and Placement institution of its kind in Australia. This placed Recruitment Academy in a distinctive position within the market place; offering a unique service to the recruitment industry – and creating recruitment success stories. 

Michael’s extensive experience in strategic development, innovation, passion and an extraordinary vision has been the foundation of his success. As a result, his highly successful Recruitment Academy is not only on the global radar, but to his credit he is the creator of yet another industry first, Recruit Me Now.

Michael’s background, extensive experience and reputation are the foundation of the company. With over 10 years’ industry experience in Australia and the UK his career is more than a mere success story, it is a testament to his dedication and commitment to the industry – a dedication he is driven to pass on.

He entered the Recruitment Industry as an Account Manager and within a few years was charged with the position of National Account Manager, then Account Director. In this position he secured a prestigious portfolio of major national and international contracts, with a spend of in excess of $100 million, and was responsible for a team of 30 – 40 staff, ranging from support, on-site consultants, consultants, account managers and dedicated finance and administration staff. Michael has extensive experience at high level strategic account development, as well as on-the-ground service delivery in recruitment and this has been the foundation of his success in winning, implementing, developing and managing major tender opportunities. His credibility as a deliverer of unique industry-tailored solutions is emphasised by his consistent record of leading by example and delivering against client expectations.

Once again Michael identified another gap within the Industry and brought to life Recruit Me Now. The first exclusive Recruitment Industry job and candidate board including an on-line networking forum where recruiters can communicate with other recruitment professionals. Recruit Me Now will provide the industry with access to a mixture of jobs and a pool of experienced recruitment industry candidates and “desk ready e-Graduates” specialist candidates interested in entering the Recruitment Industry within Australia, New Zealand and overseas.



This innovation was not only an industry first but will be far more effective than current industry sourcing processes and pose less risk to both the candidates and clients. Apart from increasing the quality of candidates within the Recruitment Industry, recruitment agencies will have the choice to select candidates directly from Recruit Me Now’s contractor board at a fraction of the costs of current industry sourcing arrangements.



Maria Borg Principal Facilitator

Maria has been a facilitator with Recruitment Academy since we opened our doors in 2006. And after a break having had her second child, Maria is back!

After graduating from Sydney University in 1994, Maria commenced her 16-year long career in the recruitment industry. Beginning as a temporary consultant working with a global recruiter, Maria quickly progressed through the ranks to Training & Quality Assurance Manager and then National Training Manager where she was responsible for the induction and training of all consultants across the country.

A brief break from the Industry saw Maria take on the opportunity of working with one of the largest global IT companies where she undertook the challenge of moving their local contact centre to a 24x7 ‘Follow the Sun’ operation with contact centres across four continents. After its successful implementation, and the birth of her two wonderful children, Maria returned to the recruitment industry to follow her heart and do what she loves best – develop people and assist them in reaching their true potential.

Maria is also currently completing her training as a Master Practitioner in NLP.

Paul Slezak Senior Facilitator

Over the last 14 years, Paul has built market leading businesses in the highly competitive recruitment and advertising industries in Australia and Hong Kong. In mid-2009 he took the giant leap from employee to entrepreneur in order to follow his true passion - developing and mentoring people.

Well experienced in recruitment training, management, operations and having actually run recruitment businesses in two countries, Paul is a regular facilitator for Recruitment Academy. Through his drive and creativity, Paul inspires passion, enthusiasm and commitment in all those with whom he comes into contact and his success to date has stemmed from his ability to influence and motivate key decision makers, executive management, clients, colleagues and team members alike. Paul holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Sydney and subsequently a Masters from Macquarie University. He is also the author of “21 things to do to get a new job NOW!”

Lynda Petrovski Facilitator

Lynda Petrovski has approximately 20 years experience in executive search and selection and over 10 years combined experience in organisational psychology. Throughout her career she has advised a number of organisations on how to identify the best people in the marketplace coupled with providing contemporary human resource methodologies. Lynda has also participated in specific executive management workshops for clients particularly within Financial Services.

Lynda focuses on pursuing her work as an executive search consultant by assisting companies to realise their greater potential when partnering in executive search assignments and psychological services for recruitment and development.

Lynda has placed managing directors, divisional heads, and senior executives with hybrid skills, specialising in general management, marketing, investments, operations, finance, sales/business development and HR. Lynda has worked on a number of key mandates for the Big 4 banking groups, global investment managers, insurance, and other major corporates. Previously Lynda was aligned with a boutique search firm as a Senior Associate working alongside three other partners for several years and prior to that she held a state management position for five years with an Australian based company offering HR, recruitment and training services. She has a Bachelor of Behavioural Science and is a Registered Psychologist.

Andrew Mackell-Wong Facilitator

As Director, Design & Delivery of MGA Training, Andrew Mackell-Wong is a career trainer with 22 years consulting, design and delivery experience.

A specialist in the field of communication, consulting, and interpersonal relationships, his training programs enable people to become better connectors, communicators and collaborators which triggers stunning results across sales, management, service and personal productivity.

Andrew is a Certified Master NLP Practitioner and combines the latest innovations in professional education with traditional systems to form training solutions that focus on behaviour change and lasting results. His approach to training is to help people not only have the raw skill to produce results but to have the resilience and resources to overcome challenges and hurdles along the way. He assists a wide range of industries including IT, finance, insurance, recruitment, travel and hospitality, government, sporting, media and health groups, and enjoys a “trusted advisor” status with his customers.

He encourages greater personal accountability for the results we experience and being proactive about embracing the necessary changes required to achieve our objectives.

“I guess that is who we are…”